April 14, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The "unsinkable subject," the story of the giant ship that sank on its maiden voyage, has become one of our most potent modern parables and enduring metaphors. The image of the ship's plunging stern is an icon, and expressions like "rearranging the deck chairs" and "hitting the iceberg" need no explanation.

Yet on a cold, clear April night the disaster happened to real people--stokers, millionaires, society ladies, parsons, parlourmaids--people who displayed a full range of all-too-human reactions as the events of the night unfolded. With new research, R.M.S. Titanic weaves the dramatic story of that fateful crossing with compelling portraits of the people on board--those who survived, and those who tragically lost their lives--allowing us to place ourselves on that sloping deck and ask, "What would we do?"

Grouping Information

gilded lives fatal voyage the titanics first class passengers and their world

Grouping Author

brewster hugh

Grouping Category

book

Last Grouping Update

2018-11-21 22:43:57PM

Last Indexed

2018-11-21 23:47:01PM

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0

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author

Hugh Brewster

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Hugh Brewster

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Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage takes us behind the paneled doors of the Titanic's elegant private suites to present compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers. The Titanic has often been called "An exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era," but until now, her story has not been presented as such. In Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, historian Hugh Brewster seamlessly interweaves personal narratives of the lost liner's most fascinating people with a haunting account of the fateful maiden crossing. Employing scrupulous research and featuring 100 rarely seen photographs, he accurately depicts the ship's brief life and tragic denouement and presents compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers: millionaires John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim; President Taft's closest aide, Major Archibald Butt; writer Helen Churchill Candee; the artist Frank Millet; movie actress Dorothy Gibson; the celebrated couturiere Lady Duff Gordon; aristocrat Noelle, the Countess of Rothes; and a host of other travelers. Through them, we gain insight into the arts, politics, culture, and sexual mores of a world both distant and near to our own. And with them, we gather on the Titanic's sloping deck on that cold, starlit night and observe their all-too-human reactions as the disaster unfolds. More than ever, we ask ourselves, "What would we have done?"